


Everyday With You

by fandomsandxfiles



Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [17]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s06e15 Arcadia, F/M, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29588385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/fandomsandxfiles
Summary: Little moments in the lives of Rob and Laura Petrie.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020487
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: X-Files Dialogue Fanfic Exchange (2021)





	Everyday With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missdashwood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missdashwood/gifts).



> this was written for the x-files dialogue prompt exchange, and my prompt was _"You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?"_
> 
> I immediately thought of Arcadia because every time I watch it I think about how Mulder is so excited to have Scully as his fake wife :)
> 
> hope you like it!

If the flight was awkward, the drive up to the house could only be described as excruciating. These were the last moments they had as Mulder and Scully, before they would have to become Rob and Laura, before their lives would be governed by lies and bureau-approved backstories. Tension hung in the air as they drove from the airport to their new home, and the only audible sound was the car's persistent turn signal. 

They were finally back on the X-Files, but something still seemed wrong, because this didn't seem like an X-Files case. When Skinner had given them the assignment, Scully had furrowed her eyebrows. Yeah, the case was unsolved, but it didn't seem like something they should be handling. At best, it was something for the Major Crimes Unit. Scully had half a mind to think that Skinner had assigned them the case as some sort of reconciliation. They had been through a lot recently, but this was something new. The case could stretch anywhere from a few days to over a month. depending on what was waiting for them behind the looming gates and electronic keypad of the Falls at Arcadia. 

Mulder had gleefully accepted the assignment and had almost everything sorted out a day later. Names, backstories, he practically had fake birth certificates for them, and he had jumped on board with Skinner's idea to put them undercover, and as a married couple. Scully understood why the fabrication was necessary, she wasn't doubting that. Places like these weren't going to let outsiders into their spaces, everything was closed off for a reason, and if something was really going on, then those involved definitely wouldn’t want any outside attention. She knew this wasn't going to be an easy case, because if they wanted to get any important information from the people who lived in the neighborhood she would have to gain their trust, and that took time. 

There was something else that was going to take time as well, and that was repairing her relationship with Mulder, getting back to how it was before they were kicked off the X-Files. She had never spent this much time with him outside of the office, and even then they almost always stayed in separate spaces, save for a night or two. The domestic setting and cover story for this case only added to the pressure she felt and the apprehension she had. If there was any noticeable tension between her and Mulder, it could put their cover at risk. People weren't supposed to be unhappy here, and the community was often touted as "The American Dream." 

The car slowed to a stop, and Scully was pulled from her thoughts. The gates opened, and they followed the moving van down identical streets of identical houses. When the car finally landed at a stop, Scully could see a woman holding a giant basket hovering anxiously on the sidewalk in front of the house. "You ready Laura?" Mulder asked as he pulled the keys from the ignition. 

Scully took a deep breath. She wasn't sure if she was, but she nodded anyway. 

***

When it was time to go to bed on the first night, Scully grabbed her things and started to walk towards the guest room, but Mulder apparently had other plans. “Hey Scully, where are you going?” 

She turned around to face him. “It’s Laura, remember? And I’m going to bed, because it’s been a long day.”

“The master suite is the other way, you know.” 

Her eyebrows instinctively raised at his remark. “Mulder, I’m sleeping in the guest room. There aren’t any cameras in the house, the FBI checked, so we don’t have to maintain the charade as much when we’re inside.” 

“Well, I just thought-” he started to say. 

**“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”** she said. “And just think, you were the one who said I wanted to play house before. We’re not here for a vacation Mulder, this is a case. Whether I think it’s an X-File or not, we are here because something happened that needs to be explained.” 

Mulder opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. It was obvious he didn’t know what to say. He had been playing up their cover since the minute they arrived, with little touches and less personal space between them. She had thought it was just for the neighbors, to make them believe that they were a sickenly sweet couple in love, but he didn’t change his behavior when they were by themselves. She had started to pull away from him, as a way to focus on the task at hand. It would be far too easy to forget why they were here and lose herself in the idea of being married to Mulder. Every time he placed his hand on the small of her back, her heart skipped a beat. Scully fell asleep that night staring at the ceiling, and listening to Mulder pace in the other room. She wondered how it might have been different if she had slept in the master bedroom with him. 

The next morning, it was quiet as the two of them ate breakfast and then got ready to return the box of dishes to Big Mike. It wasn’t too far of a walk and it was a nice day, but it seemed that they weren’t the only ones who wanted to see Mike. Win Shroeder was standing on his porch, and from a distance it looked like he was watering the grass with the hose. When they got closer though, they realized he was actually using the hose to clean the concrete of the porch and walkway. Scully exchanged a look with Mulder as they approached him with the box of china. “So how was your first night? Peaceful?” Win asked brightly, “accidentally” spraying them with the hose. 

“ Oh, it was wonderful,” Mulder said. “We just spooned up and fell asleep like little baby cats. Isn't that right, Honeybunch?” 

Scully was smiling, but her eyes told a different story. “That's right, Poopyhead.” If Win suspected anything was wrong, he didn’t say it. The awkward conversation that followed was only further proof that something strange was going on in the Falls at Arcadia. And they definitely needed to figure out what.

***

They had already had dinner with the Shroeders, but Pat Verlander and her husband had invited Mulder and Scully over for dinner as well. Well, they had invited Rob and Laura. And at this point, Scully was wishing that they had just gracefully declined.

A dinner party with a neighbor you barely knew was always going to be awkward (even if they weren’t FBI agents on a case), but this was a special kind of torture. Scully had always assumed that she would die either of old age, or of some unfortunate mission for the bureau. But tonight, she was over 100 percent sure that small talk would kill her well before anything else even had the chance. Pat asked how she met “Rob,” and as much as she didn’t want to, she gritted her teeth and pushed the story that they had met at a UFO convention. Mulder was grinning next to her, and she elbowed him just hard enough for him to notice, but not hard enough for Pat or her husband to. 

Pat knew almost everyone in the neighborhood and almost everything about them, but she still faltered when Scully asked about the previous owners of the house they were staying in. Or Big Mike, for that matter. She could tell you that Mary Winters and Jacquline Bell were sleeping with each other’s husbands, or that Win Shroeder’s dog has a special hatred for the cat who lived next door to them, but not a thing about David and Nancy Kline. 

“They were quiet,” she had said when Scully brought up the topic. “Didn’t interact much with everyone else, so we didn’t really notice if something went wrong.” That answer, or the blatant changing of the subject that followed didn’t sit right with Scully, but she let the topic go for now. It only confirmed the fact that maybe this case was worth them looking into. 

But the small talk wasn’t the only part of this dinner that Scully would rather forget. At one point while they were eating, Pat had made an offhand comment about how her and Mulder (well, Rob and Laura), “weren’t really as lovey-dovey as newlyweds often are.” 

“We try to be considerate,” Mulder jumped in the conversation, because Scully didn’t know what to say. “We didn’t know if there was something in the CC&R’s about PDA because there seem to be rules about everything else here, you know?”

Pat and her husband laughed, but this time the subject wasn’t changed. She kept going on, and eventually Scully got tired of it. It was almost a blessing when she excused herself to clear the table, and she declined Scully’s offer to help. While both Pat and her husband were off in another room, Mulder lightly tapped Scully on the shoulder. “Do you trust me?” he whispered as he leaned closer to her. 

“Why? What are you doing?” she whispered back, hoping Pat couldn’t hear them. 

“I have an idea to get them off our back. Do you trust me?” 

_Did she trust him?_ That was a question that had been on her mind a lot recently, but right now she didn’t have time to really think about it. “Yes, I trust you.” 

He had leaned the rest of the way in to kiss her right as Pat walked back in the room with a tray of cookies. “Oh!” she exclaimed, and Scully pulled away, her cheeks flushed ever-so-slightly. Their lips had touched for less than a moment, but she couldn’t help the butterflies she felt when Mulder had kissed her. 

“Sorry about that,” Mulder laughed, smiling. Scully smiled too, but only wanted to sink deeper in the chair she was sitting in. 

This night couldn’t be over fast enough.

***

When the case was finally wrapped up, it almost didn’t feel like they solved anything. Scully still didn’t understand what had happened, what was truly terrorizing the residents of the community, but she was almost happy to ditch the sweater vests and cardigans to return to her usual wardrobe of skirts and pantsuits. 

Gogolak’s death had brought about some change in the neighborhood, you could tell - it was like everyone could breathe a little easier. But other than that, nothing else seemed any different from the day that Rob and Laura Petrie first arrived and started to settle in. The Falls at Arcadia was named one of the top planned communities in California for the sixth year running, as if nothing ever happened. Some of the residents, those who knew what was going on more than everyone else, blamed Gogolak for everything, claiming they were just doing what they were told, because they wanted to keep living there. 

For some people, this truly was the American Dream, but Scully just didn’t see the appeal. Her and Mulder got back on the plane to DC, and they were both silent for most of the flight. The kiss at Pat’s was still weighing on their minds, but neither wanted to be the first to address it. Scully understood that it was born of necessity, that the whole reason it happened was because Pat was being a little too nosy, but she had felt something in that split second that Mulder’s lips were on hers. But she was still a little bit wary of him and she didn’t want to let herself get hurt again, so she didn’t broach the topic. 

They arrived back in their basement office the next day, and a new case file was sitting on the desk. Suddenly, it was like nothing had ever happened, like Rob and Laura Petrie were just figments of their imaginations, names in a case file that now had the word “CLOSED” stamped over it. She told herself they would address what happened between them at some point, that it would _have_ to be addressed eventually, but a part of her knew she was lying to herself. 

They took off to this new case and everything that had happened melted away. They were Mulder and Scully once more, on a quest for “the truth” - whatever that may be. 

_\- the end -_


End file.
